Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more […]

Startup To Watch: Antler

Here at Work In Startups, we’re on a mission to champion the best and most exciting startups in the UK. To support this, we’re starting a new blog series highlighting some of the most innovative and fast-growing startups around. Follow us as we interview startup founders and employees across the country and find out more about their goals and ambitions, what the future holds and (for all you startup jobseekers out there looking for the inside scoop) what they look for in a prospective employee.

This week, we’re interviewing Antoine Poirson, a Partner at Antler – a startup generator and early-stage VC that enables the world’s most exceptional people to build global businesses from the ground up. Antler is expanding fast across the globe, building a startup community and on the hunt for prospective founders!

Hi Antoine! What would you say Antler’s mission is?

To enable highly talented individuals to get started on the entrepreneurial route or their next startup journey. We believe that there are three barriers to successful entrepreneurship: (1) building the right founding team, (2) figuring out the right idea and validating it and (3) accessing capital. We break these barriers to entrepreneurship and as a result help entrepreneurs succeed and build more solid businesses.

We provide our prospective founders with a pretty structured 6 month startup generator program. In the first 10 weeks, founders will need to be on location in our offices as this is when teams are formed and ideas and businesses are created and built. By carefully selecting a diverse group of people for our programs, we help budding entrepreneurs find the right co-founder with complementary skills and different experiences to their own. We then help them mature their ideas to the point that they become investable. Finally, we provide the capital and invest early on. Alongside our hands on support and strong network, this capital helps founders build an MVP, develop their product/service offering, and get their company to a Seed stage. Beyond this, we help them raise more capital from external investors.

You guys have grown a lot over the past few years! What’s next for Antler in the UK and globally?

We’ve officially set up and launched the first cohort of budding co-founders and we’re recruiting for the next London cohort, which is starting in February 2020. Every 6 months we look for a new cohort of 80 to 100 exceptional people and around 15-20 startups are born from this.

We also plan to expand our reach, geographically, outside of the capital. London has been our primary UK focus so far for our recruitment activities, but we want to explore other regions such as Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Edinburgh. Not only is there huge potential there, but we want to build a stronger network within the UK startup community. This is very important to us.

We’re also going to focus on developing our current investments. We have a lot of prominent angels and top VCs in our network, which is really helpful for the entrepreneurs joining the Antler community. Expect to see our startups growing fast and further developing their business proposition.

Outside of the UK meanwhile, Antler is expanding! We’re currently live in 8 locations across the globe and will be launching in 5 more in 2020 so people can apply to join in other regions too (Singapore, New York, Amsterdam, Oslo, Stockholm, Sydney, Nairobi). We are building a global Antler community where founders can leverage a worldwide network of investors and advisers.

They should apply if they are looking to build a high potential startup in the near future with a strong co-founding team. If they want to work with the most driven, successful and ambitious individuals as co-founders and work on something that has the potential to scale globally, then our startup generator program is for them! The support, funding and global network our founders receive when they join the Antler community should be a core motivation for prospective applicants.

What do you look for in prospective founders?

We like to work with aspiring entrepreneurs that have experience: on average our founders have 8-10 years working experience. We also look for proof: proof of greatness, proof of perseverance and proof of drive. We want people who are self-starters and don’t need to be pushed to deliver something. They should always be on their toes and constantly think of ways to do things better, bigger and faster.

We also look for people with a “spike”. In other words, something that they’re exceptionally good at. This could be a technical skill, deep sector knowledge, or even a soft skill. It’s something that puts them in the top 2% of the talent pool and really makes them special.

You’ve worked internationally in startups. Do you have any advice for those thinking about taking the startup leap but currently unsure about leaving the corporate world?

Just get started, it’s as simple as that. If you are currently in a job and thinking about starting a business, it seems very risky and bold. What I have observed is that you face a bit of a paralysis. You constantly think that if you get started in 6 months rather than today, you’ll have more savings and be more prepared. However, it actually doesn’t bring much value to wait. The earlier you start the more you will achieve in the future and the more likely it is that you will reach your goals. So I would encourage everyone to get started as soon as possible.

Secondly, a lot of people think that they don’t have the right idea, but the idea is almost immaterial if they find the right team. I cannot stress enough how important your founding partners are to your success. Ideas are fairly common, but what isn’t normal is when a team is able to execute on that idea. This is what separates the successful startups from the ones that fail.

Sometimes landing a new startup job in London (or anywhere in the UK) can feel a bit like making some new friends who already have a lottttttt of obnoxious in-jokes and references. Luckily, Work In Startups is here to help bust that jargon today. Have a flick through our quick A-Z so you don’t feel like an outsider at your local Shoreditch flat-white dispensary! […]

Jargon Buster: The Work In Startups “A-Z” of Startup Terminology

Sometimes landing a new startup job in London (or anywhere in the UK) can feel a bit like making some new friends who already have a lottttttt of obnoxious in-jokes and references. Luckily, Work In Startups is here to help bust that jargon today. Have a flick through our quick A-Z so you don’t feel like an outsider at your local Shoreditch flat-white dispensary!

A

Angel Investor

A private individual who invests capital (usually in the early stages of a startup), generally in exchange for equity.Accelerator – investment-fund program that provide funding and mentorship to budding startups in exchange for a stake

B

Burn Rate

The amount of cash a startup is spending each monthBootstrapping – initial funding stage of a startup deploying only your personal savings or with help from friends and family (rather than angel or seed investment)

C

Cash Flow Positive

(The dream!) When a startup’s cash coming in is greater than its cash going out. Note this is different to being profitable!

D

Disruptive

A product or service that aims / is about to (hopefully) change or revolutionise an existing industry. A buzzword in the startup world!

E

Equity

Several geeky accounting definitions, but generally in startups equity refers to the relative amount (share) someone owns in the company

F

Freemium

When your core produce or service is free, but there are premium / non-free features available which are designed to improve the user experience even furtherFrontend – the pretty face of software engineering (obviously so much more that). In short: the bit on startup websites that you (the user) see and interact with! It runs in tandem with the Backend which does the heavy lifting behind the scenes

G

Growth Hacking

A startup marketing term focused around experimentation on growth strategy – working out ways to acquire as many users as quickly / cheaply as possibleGamification – implementing elements or features you would find in a game in a non-gaming productGA – (Google Analytics) this is the big boy for tracking just about anything activity-related on a website. Given its heavy use, “GA” is an easier term to spit out!

H

Hockey Stick

A growth curve on a chart – an initial dip (where you’re investing) followed by a strong upward trajectory, leaving the progress line looking a bit like a hockey stick!

I

IPO

An “Initial Public Offering” – the first time a startup (or any company) lists its shares on a public stock market

J

Javascript/Java/JS

One of the most commonly recognised programming languages – generally if you see knowledge of this as a requirement for a startup job and you don’t know what it means, don’t apply for it!

K

KPI

Key Performance Indicators – a measurable value tracked by a startup to gauge progress. When the name of the game is growth, we are slaves to the KPIs!

L

Low-Hanging Fruit

The easiest, quickest wins available in a given project. Essentially the fruit you don’t have to climb too high (or work too hard) to collectLiquidity Event – some form of opportunity for investors to cash in their stake, therefore turning some (or all) of their assets on paper into “liquid” cashLifetime Value – the prediction of value you expect a customer (or supplier) relationship to generate over the whole of its existence. So hopefully more than just one transaction

M

MVP

Minimum Viable Product – the most basic version of the product that can viably work and be rolled-out, it often gets expanded with new features later on. Minotaur – a startup that has raised $1bn+ from investors (it might not necessarily be worth that much to prospective buyers!)

N

Ninja

A very startuppy title for a supposed expert in a field (e.g. after reading this article , you’ll be a startup lingo ninja!)

O

(Stock/Equity) Options

An agreement giving someone (most likely a startup employee or investor) the option to purchase shares in a company at a given strike price (which you can then hopefully sell later for a profit). You might well get offered these when you join a startup – take them!OKRs – Objectives and Key Results – tangible goal-setting framework. You set your objective and then pick the metrics (key results) that will quantify your progress

P

Pre & Post Money Valuations

Terms referring to the valuation of a startup before investment or financing and then after (after factoring in the new cash). ProductManager – the person responsible for developing the product, owning the business strategy, features and functionality! Pivot – a shift (quite often a significant one) in business model following feedback on / performance of an initial product

Q

QA Testing

Quality Assurance Testing. This is basic testing of the product, usually with an eye on user experience – think beta-tests and bugchecks a-plenty!

R

ROI

Return-on-Investment. At a very high level, and without getting too geeky about it, this is something that investors will monitor to determine the efficiency (usually financial) of a given investment. Bigger ROI generally means a better use of their funds!

S

Seed Round

The first round of external capital funding for a startup.SEM/SEO – Search Engine Marketing/Optimization – two distinct areas, but both relate to promoting a startup’s product by increasing its visibility on search engines. Best ask your marketing team directly if you want to learn more about the nuances (as there are many!)

T

Traction

A sign that all your startups growth efforts are taking effect, and whether people are actually buying or using the product..

U

Unicorn

A term to refer to startups that have been given a $1 billion valuation. Note this doesn’t have to have been realised in cash!

V

VC

Venture Capital. In a nutshell, this is financial investment (or investors) in startups that are looking for high growth opportunities in exchange for equitySilicon Valley – The name given to an area in the southern San Francisco Bay where lots of startups and tech companies are based.

W

Waterfall

The “last in, first out” order that investors often get their money in a liquidity event. Those coming later to the table have often had the opportunity to negotiate better terms for themselves since they can see what others have committed to!

X

Xenopus

A startup that has grown revenue at over 100% a year…. Just kidding (unless it catches on)! It’s actually a weird frog – it’s hard to find an X word for this list!

Y

Y-Combinator

Y-Combinator is a big seed accelerator with many ‘y-backed’ startups in their portfolio… (Cut us some slack, Y is hard too!)

Z

Zebra

A term used to refer to startups focused more on building a sustainable growth business than a “boom or bust” approach

The Worst Offender: Tech Startups

You’d hope that most of these are self-explanatory, but here are a few of the most common tech startup fields / buckets with definitions to help you out: